17.06.2019

The 125th birth anniversary of Mane Katz - sculptor, artist and collector is marked on June 17, 2019

Mane-Katz often stated that he felt himself at home everywhere, at any place on the globe.

Katz was born in Ukraine, in Kremenchug, in a large family. At the age of 16, he realized that painting attracted him more than the prospect of following in his father’s fate and becoming a rabbi. He left home and with two rubles in his pocket reached Vilno, then went to Mirgorod, and in 1911 - to Kiev, where he entered to the School of Fine Arts. He went to study in Paris in 1913. There he began to sign his works in the French manner "Mane-Katz". In 1914, after the the First World War started, Mane-Katz returned to Russia, lived in Petrograd, where he became interested in collecting Judaica items. The revolution of 1917 forced him to return to Kremenchug, where he began to teach painting. In 1921, Mane-Katz left Russia forever, went back to Paris and lived there for more than 30 years, gaining the fame of expressionist, impressionist and “just” a Jewish artist - “a chronicler of his people.” At the beginning of World War II, Mane Katz, as a citizen of France, was mobilized and sent to military school. Once with his unit in Rouen, he was captured by the Germans, but managed to escape. At the cost of incredible effort, he reached America. From 1940 until the end of the war, Mane-Katz lived in New York. He was the first of the artists who returned to Paris in 1945, and in the summer of 1946, he came to Israel once more. Two years later, during the War for Independence, Mane-Katz brought sixty of his works to the Tel Aviv Museum. Since that time, he used to come to Israel every year. The last time when he returned to Israel, he was already mortally ill. Mane-Katz died on September 9, 1962.

Works of Mane-Katz are presented in the Museum Collection.
They are "Musician Flautist" and "Musician Violinist". Both works were created in the 1950’s.
Biography of Mane Katz is posted in the section AUTHORS.